The invention relates to a gearbox housing comprising a housing body enclosing a housing interior and having a passage opening for a shaft surrounded by a connecting surface, wherein a plurality of bores formed in the housing body and passing through the housing body wall are used to fill oil into or to drain it out of the housing interior, detect the oil level in the housing interior and vent the housing interior. The invention further relates to a gearbox unit and a gear motor which are provided with such a gearbox housing.
Gear motors are known in various embodiments and form a combined unit consisting of a motor, generally an electric motor, and a reduction gear which ensures that the output shaft of the gearbox rotates at a lower speed but at a substantially higher torque than that of the motor. So-called MOTOX standard gear motors, for example, are available from the applicant and are able to be supplied with helical gear units, offset shaft gear units and helical-bevel gear units for a power range of up to 200 kW and a gear unit torque of up to 20,000 Nm. Gear motors comprising planetary gear units are also available.
Gear motors are used in the prior art, for example as actuating drives for motors, feed drives on machines as well as drives for robots, windshield wipers, etc. The gearbox housing is provided in this case with a connecting surface, generally a standard flange via which it may be connected to the shaft to be driven.
The gearbox units of the gear motors have to be lubricated during operation. To this end, the interior of the gearbox housing is filled with oil to a predetermined level. Accordingly, bores are provided in the housing wall of the gearbox housing, said bores functioning during operation as an oil filling opening, an oil draining opening, a venting opening and as a level measuring opening in the gearbox housing. In this case, the bores are provided in such a number and positioned such that the aforementioned functions are fulfilled, even in different installed positions. This requires costly machining in some cases, however, as the gearbox housing has to be repeatedly reclamped and positioned in order to introduce the bores.